


Prologue

by HeroesForHireTempLocation



Series: Heroes for Hire [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 05:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6106534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeroesForHireTempLocation/pseuds/HeroesForHireTempLocation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Heroes for Hire is an episodic fantasy comedy/drama centered around the life and times of a party of 10 rather outlandish freelancers, and unlikely friends. The ensemble includes 4 half-breeds and 2 of the undead, as well as a gnome, a tiny dragon, a demon and an enchantress.</p>
<p>Our story starts with a recalling of two years prior, when the rag-tag team first met, and then proceeds forward to introduce their 10th and final member, Viola, a mild-mannered cervitaur with a troubled past of captivity, who's just been made free at their hands.</p>
<p>Together they begin toward their new life as a not only a team, but a developing family unit, and face the daily struggles and oddities of a group with no home and no purpose, getting by on chance and experience alone.</p>
<p>More information about the characters and world to be located at: http://heroesforhire-works.tumblr.com/</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prologue

A deep breath in, filling the lungs, and a soft breath out all at once.

Rurik’s calming breaths sounded heavy and panting passing through his large snaggle-toothed and wolf-like snout, his pointed ears sprouted from the top of his head -covered in dark, marbled fur like the rest of his body- lying back to display concern and apprehension.

He steadied himself, standing at the top of a hill in the path from town, a young man alone in the world, starting on his way to something -and somewhere- new.

It had been about six years since he lost his parents to the prejudice against his kind.

It wasn’t entirely clear where people like he and his family came from in the beginning; it was only assumed that magic was involved, but despite their ever-growing presence, half breed human-animals were largely considered subhuman - less human.

The simple and faded clothes on his back were among the few things he owned and could take with him as he set foot forward to make a life for himself, accompanied only by the contents of the shoddy-looking bag slung over his shoulders, and now, at seventeen, having taken all the time he would allow himself to grieve and to recover, he was going to set things in motion to find himself a place in the world.

The sun’s rays over the hilltop weren’t bright or overbearing, but his fur coat heated up quickly in direct sunlight, so he started forward again to the trees, about half a day’s walk from his foster home already, and continued through the forest to a destination he did not yet know.

-

When a few hours passed, and he’d begun to wonder if he should take a short break, he came upon a clearing, shaded well at this time of day by the surrounding trees, all but one pillar of light pouring into the very center.

It was an almost magical scene, but drew concern from him in wonder’s stead as there was a girl lying there, silently bathed in sunbeams.

She was dressed _almost_ like royalty, not quite regally but very nicely, in all varying shades of blue -lighter blues, like that of her long smooth hair, pulled back in a huge loose ponytail- and a bit of white and silver, as she lacked a cape or long skirt that would have trailed the ground gently had she walked.

As he stepped cautiously closer to where she laid unconscious in the grass a glint of light from the silver circlet peeking through her disheveled bangs nearly blinded him, so he remained at that distance a bit longer and cocked his head to the side, relieved to find her back was noticeably rising and falling ever-so-faintly as she breathed; though while she was alive, and looked unharmed, he wasn’t sure what to make of her there.

“..Hello?” His voice was shaky and uncertain when he spoke up, but he was quick to clear his throat and sound sure in the case she heard him after all and could have somehow posed a threat.

He’d try this first, before he came any closer.

You could never be too careful.

“Are you alright..?”

No answer.

He took a few steps toward her and set down his bag.

“I’m...going to come closer..”

He took the last steps over and knelt on the ground to nudge her lightly with his paw and see if she would stir.

No response.

He shook her shoulder a bit.

Nothing.

At this point the dilemma evolved from evaluating the situation to whether he would leave her there, vulnerable and alone, which he could hardly bring himself to, and by now he guessed he was a few hours outside of the town he’d spotted in the distance from the hills.

But would he really carry a strange girl for that length of time, just to be sure she was safe and attended to? And what if she woke up at some point, frightened or defensive, or evil or even... _obnoxious and rude?_  
He stood again, took his bag, and turned away.  
It was now, he felt, he would decide what type of person he would be, in the life he would make for himself.

And with that decision, he found himself stuck, carrying a blue-haired, unconscious, and rather interestingly-dressed young woman, for two and a half hours, into the small town in the valley.

By the time the odd duo arrived in town the sun was setting; Rurik located the inn, ignored the strange looks he earned from the civilians, and took her inside, hoping he could find a way to put her in a room.

And ultimately, leave her there if she didn’t wake up by the next morning.

The world outside of the small town he’d stayed in since he’d lost his parents was nostalgic somehow, but mostly foreign; he could have sworn he’d spotted a _mermaid_ lingering off to the side in a wheelbarrow filled with water as he approached the front desk, still carrying the blue-haired girl in a position he hoped wouldn’t make the two of them look like a pair of honeymooners.

There was a bell on the counter, but while Rurik contemplated how to acquire assistance with his hands full as they were, there was a crash and a grumbling as a man not much older than he was scrambled from behind the bar on the other side of the large entry room to the counter with the bell, and came tumbling to the ground about midway.

“I found this woman-” Rurik began, but he was interrupted by a groan when the unattentive young man got to his feet, rubbed his head and then slunk behind the counter, leaning on it and finally looking Rurik up and down.

His expression shifted from that of irritation and mild exhaustion to contemplative caution that Rurik knew was a blatant judgement of his appearance, near enough it was to that of a wolf walking on his hind legs. That and the fact that he was carrying what looked like an older, human, girl who was clearly not asleep.

“What...can I do for you..” The man said slowly, squinting at the other’s eyes as if searching for a light that looked more human than animal, “..sir?”

Rurik noticed when he brushed his hair aside shortly after that the raggedy son -he assumed, of the _real_ innkeeper- was to some degree Elven, as his ears came to a point at the top, but only just slightly, and while known for their self-righteousness it felt a bit insulting at have an elf give you a look like you were strange or untrustworthy for being non-human.

“I found this woman around two hours out of town and not near any other,” Rurik said in a proud manner, as if declaring his innocence of the situation that seemed questionable at first glance. “I intend to leave her here, or somewhere nearby if there’s nothing I can do to jarr her from her current...state.”

"..That's what you 'intend,’ eh?" The man repeated skeptically, giving him another glance up and down as if to say he didn't trust him alone with her, but on the second glance the girl's face caught his eye; Rurik hadn't really paid much mind to it, but his current companion was exceptionally beautiful.

The only thought he really had about it was that it was a good thing. It would make it easy for him to leave her with a caretaker, because no doubt some strapping young man would step forward in an instant to call himself her hero.

"You can take her to a room but I'm coming with you," The young half-Elven replied snidely, grabbing a keyring from a hook behind him and stepping out from behind the counter again. "..And you're paying for her tonight."

Rurik sighed, rolling his eyes behind the young man’s back, and they were on their way upstairs.

Once the girl was laid gently on the single bed in the room, still breathing softly but not stirring at all despite efforts for her attention, the boys exchanged suspicious glances, and agreed to both return to the bar.

Neither of them seemed to want to go first, but neither had much desire to speak another word to each other either, for that matter, so they’d have to leave the room sooner or later.

And while the moment may have painted the both of them as moody teenagers being petty, Rurik had personal reason to be offended and unsociable to his rude fellow adolescent.

-

Downstairs, a young jet-black and spiky-haired Naga approached the bar, curious as to the lack of a bartender.

His long, pale-colored scarf, gold bands, delicately embroidered vest and other jewelry gained him a few lingering stares from people who'd already overlooked his well-tanned skin (in an area with very gentle summers), thin, sharp eyes, and long, powerful tail that casually snaked it's way across the floor as he moved.

He leaned against the counter, casting a wandering glance around and then turned to the incoherently muttering man to his left, where he found himself face to...er, face, with that which he could only assume was a Dullahan of the high lands to the north, about which he’d only read back home; As the man, dressed in black and grey garments reminiscent of a knight, whom he was now faced with was entirely void of his head, an empty drink in hand despite the lack of a...mouth.

His high white collar came up to the end of his neck, and from then on there was nothing but a thick cloud of abysmal smoke slowly drifting from his severed throat.

The younger, but slightly taller man (though credit for his superior height was due to his possession of a head) coiled his tail up under the bar and smiled. "My name is Kiran-"

"The hell're y'starin' at snack boy??" The Dullahan piped up at the same moment, slurring and pushing up off the bar suddenly as if he was ready to fight or take off running.

Kiran flinched and clutched his chest for a moment after the other raised his voice without warning, as he had expected, naturally, and given that there wasn't much written of the creatures outside of an ominous myth, that without a head he would lack at least a few of the senses associated with...having one.

But obviously he had been heard and seen all too clearly.

"I-..snack?" Kiran stammered as he slowly analyzed the man's accent and his slurring until it finally clicked what he'd said.

"I said SNAKE! Some'in' wronwith'ya mate!?" The Dullahan slammed his glass on the counter and shattered it, lodging a few small shards of glass in his hand, not seeming to notice, and further startling the other, while other softly buzzing patrons couldn't seem to concern themselves.

"I'm sorry I find your accent and state of speech conf-" Kiran attempted to explain before he was interrupted.

"Ya got a pro'lem with'a west highlands'i'll bust ya up, slithers!" The headless man announced, pounding his chest and then laughing obnoxiously, apparent as ever that he was heavily intoxicated.

This begged the question in Kiran’s mind of just how a man with no head had managed to ingest large amounts of alcohol, but that would stand aside for the matter at hand.

The matter that the slightly shorter, drunken man with the foreign accent and no head couldn’t seem to form a proper sentence, and by now it was all Kiran had not to laugh.

"I-heh-I-I'm sorry I really can't take you seriously when you’re yelling like that--"

There was only a second or so where something in the other man’s ‘head’ decided that was offensive enough to warrant this action before his fist was thrusted firmly into the side of Kiran’s jaw at a shocking speed, and things escalated further from that point with ease.  
The noise made its way to the attic where a quiet, lost soul had been lurking in peace, and she turned her gaze up from the tattered white dress and corset she had been wearing for a length of time of which she was no longer aware, to glance through the thick, kinky black hair that hung over her left eye and down her back in a curtain.

There was trouble, and while she had been dead for quite some time, she never cared for...living and letting die.

She sensed a kindred spirit gifted with healing talents abiding nearby on a lower level and drifted to her feet, before making her way discreetly to the room Rurik and the half-Elven boy had just left behind.

The girl lying on the bed in silence didn’t show signs or intention of getting up anytime soon, and as the spirit inspected her curiously, verifying this was the soul she’d come in search of that was needed elsewhere, she elected it sensible to project her chi energy (though it usually worked the other way around) to try and wake her from this endless sleep of unknown consequence.  
At the same time a crash, among other loud and unceremonious sounds of a struggle echoed up the stairs to Rurik as he came closer to the ground floor again.

His ears flickered toward the source of the ruckus and without thinking too much on it he shoved past the innkeeper’s son a few steps ahead and hurried down to see if he could reclaim for a moment the role he played in his foster hometown, breaking up petty fights since he’d grown to considerable size and height when compared to men of other breeds.

When he reached the foot of the stairs and looked into the bar a surplus of chairs and a few tables had been turned on their heads and sides as a young man with the lower half of a behemoth snake was coiling his tail tightly above him around the inebriated and _not_ easily subdued Dullahan in an attempt to hold him off; Kiran had been roughed up notably, shoved onto his back on the creaky wooden floor and was trying now to keep the aggressively-struggling other from getting on top of him or taking another swing with a fist or a foot at his head.

The headless man was still yelling, large puffs of the mysterious black smoke wafting out of his throat sporadically, but it wasn’t apparent to anyone in the surrounding area -other patrons standing back from the commotion to watch- whether he was speaking their language _that_ poorly or some other for his kind or his land.

_“HEY!”_ Rurik wasn’t sure exactly what was going on, but it was his instinct to put a stop to it, since it was obviously wrong.

It was especially odd that two so very powerful creatures foreign to the area had decided to turn a humble, quiet and perfectly ordinary inn into such a disaster area.

Kiran and a few of the frightened bystanders looked to the stairs when Rurik called out to the room forcefully, but as Kiran tried again to apologetically and desperately explain himself the frazzled northerner in his grip got away from him and scrambled to grab the neck of his vest with both hands, stand up and slam him against the bar, prompting Rurik to leap into action.

The few hushed observers that stood between him and the scuffle made themselves scarce as soon as he made a move toward them, effortlessly nudging a toppled table aside and putting himself between the other two with a heavy shove to both sides that sent the other men tumbling to the floor.

A feeling of overwhelming and dazing serenity suddenly swept the large room as Rurik took a few heavy breaths and shook off the arm that had thrust Kiran aside and was now wet with an unknown substance, which thanks to his new faltering state of mind, he paid little attention to as he rubbed the side of his face with the same wrist.

“Wow.” The owner of an unfamiliar, soft, but enthusiastic-sounding female voice behind him evaluated the situation in a hushed tone, and as he turned around slowly, sure that the Naga and Dullahan hadn’t made to get up from the floor yet while they were dazed as well, Rurik found a solemn-looking, white-eyed young woman with a deep, dark complexion dressed in lifeless pale colors and floating a few inches from the ground with her arms spread wide in front of the blue-haired girl he’d carried in. The first girl returned her arms to her sides and looked to her side slowly.

“..You’ll provide assistance to those harmed, is that right?”

The other girl brushed her long bangs behind her ear with a quick affirmative nod and stepped into the room to have a look around the confused and sleepy-looking people therein, gently taking the arm of someone who was holding it close to their chest as if they’d gotten a bit more tied up in the altercation than the others, and moistening it with vapor collected from the air.

“My name is Roksana; I’m a healer,” She said when they looked befuddled and somewhat frightened. “Who among you requires immediate attention?”

Rurik watched them quietly from where he stood in a stupor, letting it set in that the girl he’d carried here was alright and he could go on.

Also that she apparently possessed a healing magic and was now accompanied by, what had to have been a ghost. Nothing else looked quite like that.

He turned from the two girls as Roksana had a look around -noticing the mermaid he’d thought he’d seen earlier, brushing her long blonde hair out of her eyes and leaning on the edge of her wheelbarrow in interest from the corner- to get a better look at the Dullahan and the Naga, but as he did so another new voice roared down the hall and into the room, followed closely by the tall, fairly ordinary-looking human man to whom it belonged.

_“_ ** _What happened in here_ ** _??”_ The keeper of the inn asked, fuming.

His son, who had taken a considerable blow from Rurik on the stairs and had scuttled to his father’s side after entering the room behind Roksana and the ghost, gathered himself and spat a few words from cowering behind his father, wagging a finger in their direction, “It was all those-- _creatures_ , they came out of nowhere and they’ve been nothing but trouble all day while you were gone!”

Hardly a truth, considering he seemed to refer to Rurik, Roksana, and Kiran, in addition to the stumbling drunk Dullahan who was pushing himself up on his hands and knees now, but it was more than enough for the innkeeper to throw the lot of them out on the street corner, along with the young mermaid, who’d begun flapping her long, sparkly blue-green tail in the water she’d been provided in protest, and, after considerable whining and throwing some of it out onto the floor, was deemed either an annoyance or a menace like the others, and was thrown out into the street as well.

Rurik sat on the edge of the street with a soft huff as the supernatural haze lifted from him again and he noticed his right eye start to itch and burn faintly. He looked to either side of himself at the odd bunch that would, apparently, have no place sleeping in town tonight.

To his left, he found the headless man clinging to a large black Clydesdale Rurik decided to assume belonged to him, as his mood had lightened immensely, and he addressed the horse by name as ‘Colin’ while he spewed drunkenly of how much he loved it. Then the blue-haired girl, Roksana, looking over the man to be sure he was alright, but not seeming to find anything apparently wrong and not wanting to get any closer to the delusional drunkard.

To his right, the two teenagers with the long floppy tails had landed ungracefully in a pile.

His eye was starting to hurt.

The healer moved to him next. “..Are you alright?” she asked, concerned that the tired look on his face combined with his intimidating stature were reason to be sheepish.

She noticed his eye twitch and saw that he’d been rubbing it. It didn’t look alright, so she reached out to touch his face gently and get a closer look. “What is that-”

After some muttering back and forth and a shared uncomfortable laugh from the two tangled up on the street, something seemed to click into place in Kiran’s mind and he shot up from his place on the ground in a panic, accidentally dumping the mergirl aside onto the dirt.

“Oh dear-my gods--” he sputtered, pausing only for a frantic moment to apologize for dropping the young lady that had landed on top of him before, he slid over to Roksana’s side, facing Rurik. “M-my venom, you-”  
Rurik ignored him at first to reply stoically to Roksana’s query. “My eye is burning.”

Roksana opened her mouth to speak again and was interrupted immediately by the spastic serpent.

“Your hand-er..paw?-you smashed my-- _did you rub your eye??”_

_“Get a hold of yourself man!”_ The surprisingly casual-behaving young woman snapped, grabbing Kiran by his shoulders and shaking him almost violently until he stopped to take a deep breath.

“I did _what?_ Did you say venom?” Rurik asked quickly, about ready to panic himself; Roksana stared the both of them down until they stayed quiet before nearly throttling Kiran again.

“ _What_ did he do?”

The Naga gasped for a breath he’d been choking back and then responded all at once.

“I’m a snake I keep milking vials of my venom on my person sometimes you broke one when you hit me and then rubbed your face with it I think it’s in your eye I’m so sorry-”

In the background, the ghostly apparition had followed them out and was now rather interested in the Dullahan and his apparent loyal mount.

“..You need to rest.” she said, watching him attempt to climb onto the horse’s back; he ignored her.

Roksana gathered some water from the air in the palm of her hand and pressed it gently against Rurik’s eye, which he was now squinting and keeping closed, as Kiran panicked silently in the background.

_“Hey!”_ a voice mostly new to them called from their right, where the young mermaid was lying on her stomach, frowning and trying to push herself up with her hands, “A real _hello_ would be nice..”

Kiran scuttled over to help her up, pulling her arm over his shoulder and wrapping his arm around her waist. Roksana and Rurik rolled their eyes when the younger ones went a little red at the same time.

Rurik’s eye stung and he resolved not to mess with it now as Roksana slowly removed her hand.

“..I...don’t think I can fix it..” she mumbled, wringing her hands and looking at Kiran.

“I-I can pay for any treatment you need,” he stammered, intimidated by Rurik’s appearance as well, even if they were standing and he was seated. “My name is Kiran Gadhavi; I come from a wealthy family in the east.”

The girl dressed in white appeared behind them, having lost interest in the stumbling drunk.

Roksana glanced over, but turned back to Rurik looking concerned. “If my powers don’t help i’m not sure what will.”

“There is a large town a short ways from here. North.” the blank-faced spirit chimed in, watching them. “Someone there may be able to help. I can lead you there.”

A silence set over the other four for a moment of contemplation, or possibly suspicion, and she added to her statement.

“My name is Neo. You can trust me.”

“I’m Corrie.” the mergirl piped up, brushing her long hair aside again and smiling despite the situation, pulling herself closer to Kiran to keep from sliding out of his grip. “Nice to meetcha.”

Rurik realized, save for the Dullahan they’d chosen to ignore at this point, he was the only one who’d failed to introduce himself thus far, and though it felt a bit ridiculous and unnecessary he elected to do so.

“..My name is Rurik Volkov. I come from nowhere, and that’s where i’m headed.”  
He winced as another small surge of pain cracked like lightning through his eye, and Roksana took note.

“I need to stay with you to stop it spreading.”  
“I have to make sure you’re alright.” Kiran added, then turning to Corrie. “..Do you-”  
“I’ll come with you.” She replied eagerly, nodding at him and hanging onto his neck so as not to slip away.

Rurik looked over his apparent new party members with his good eye and let out a soft sigh, relieved at least that they didn’t seem afraid of him, but this was not at all what he expected when he left his old ‘home’.

“...I..guess we should get going then.” he said, getting to his feet and towering over them again, as he turned to face Neo. “Please, um-..lead the way.”

 -

Hours passed deep into the night, and as they made their way from the village in which they were hardly any longer welcome, the full moon, bright stars peppered across the sky, and Neo’s aura lit their way.

Rurik had more or less _thrown_ Corrie over his shoulder to make carrying her for hours easier, and thankfully she didn’t mind; Kiran was slithering alongside and occasionally making eye contact with her, to which each of them responded with a smile, a little wave or something, Rurik wasn’t bothered with it.

Roksana was walking at Rurik’s other side, turning her attention back to him every few seconds to be sure she was properly subduing the venom’s effects, and Neo was leading.

In addition, the Dullahan had been following them at a slight distance since they left the inn, after finally managing to clamber onto his horse.

He seemed to be sobering up a bit, but it was hard to say why he wanted to join them where they were headed.

“..He’s still behind us, isn’t he?” Rurik breathed out, somewhat exasperated and not wanting to look back again.

Roksana glanced back over her shoulder and found him sitting up mostly straight, actually seeming to have regained a grip on himself more completely, but Neo spoke first.

“He is. I can talk to him if you want. We’ll stay on this path for quite a ways. At least until the sun rises at this pace.”

“I’m so tired..” Corrie murmured. “I’m getting a little dizzy.”

Kiran seemed to want to join the conversation, but was too ashamed of possibly doing lasting damage to a very tall (very much clad with a wolf’s claws and sharp teeth), very muscular stranger’s eye to dare speak up to them at the moment.

Rurik responded to Corrie’s complaint by moving her from his shoulder to hold her in his arms -like he had Roksana earlier- with ease and nonchalance.

“It’s gotta be less than an hour ‘til morning. It’s been a long night.” he yawned. “Sorry.”

Come to think of it, it wouldn’t have been if Kiran and that Dullahan weren’t fighting, and guilty party #1 seemed as confused as Rurik himself was, as he snaked along beside them, as to why Rurik didn’t seem upset, or at the very least irritated about this turn of events.

It could be assumed he was more focused on solving the problem than complaining about it, considering he was poisoned and likely only had so much time before he could lose his depth perception for good; and while this was mostly true, Rurik also wasn’t going out of his way for anything really, as inconveniencing as being accidentally poisoned was he hadn’t even an idea of where he was going when he left his old hometown, and honestly, if he was friendly (or at least bore no ill-will) to this lot who meant him no harm, he figured it would end well, even if it happened to end quickly.

As for guilty party #2, he was probably just barely sober enough now to start thinking about what he’d done.

Though as drunken as he’d been he didn’t seem tired at all despite how far into the night it was, and on the topic of fatigue Roksana and Neo were completely fine, but that wasn’t surprising coming from a disembodied spirit and a girl who’d just been ‘asleep’ for who knew how long.

“Oi.” the Dullahan’s accent was more understandable by this time when he spoke up from behind them.

Neo made her way with a swoop through the air to the back of the group and closer to the northerner, set on reasoning with him, but the others didn’t pay him any mind past a glance back when a rush of white blew over their heads to find herself at his side.

“Tell the...tell the big guy I didn’t mean’a make a mess.” He said as calmly as seemed possible for him, turning to Neo as she came to him. “..and I’m comin’ with’ya guys for fun.”

Neo opened her mouth to speak but he added something on at the end, lurching forward where he sat for emphasis.

“’N tell the little guy- _fuCK‘IM.”_

Kiran lowered his head again in embarrassment and the Dullahan topped it off with a smug chuckle, assuring the others that he was either always this stupid or still pretty drunk; both ideas were equally plausible.

“The name’s Finn ‘n good luck bein’ ridda me.” he laughed, sitting up tall on his horse.

Roksana turned around to walk backward and give him a puzzled look. “You’re a Dullahan, aren’t you?”

He verified her assumption with pride.

“Where is your head?” she asked, looking him and his stallion up and down skeptically.

“Saddlebag.” Finn replied without missing a beat.

“..You just...stuffed your head into the saddlebag.” Neo said slowly, attempting to take this in.

“Yep.”

“If you don’t mind i’d just like to get to someone who can spare me the vision in my left eye.” Rurik sighed, noticing Corrie was starting to drift off in his arms and looking ahead toward the faintest light in the sky, that made it known the sun would rise in due time.

The peculiar group was quiet as they carried on, only a couple small exchanges, until the sun found a place in the center of the sky, and as things dragged on and the _mortals_ who’d lost sleep grew slightly more drowsy, Neo, once again at point, stopped to say something to the other five.

“I think you should rest. Roksana and I will continue and you can meet us there once we’ve had a look around, to be sure it’s safe there for you..-”

“-Half-breeds.” Rurik cut her off, as used to this as he could possibly be. “..You make a good point, but I don’t need to rest-”

He turned to Kiran to see if he looked like he needed to stop, but the idea of the townspeople possibly having an adverse reaction to their ‘inhuman’ (nor elf or dwarf) nature was one he didn’t want to see play out, and Kiran hardly seemed like the type to think about it before he went waltzing in.

“On second thought, maybe we _should_ stay back for a little while. Roksana, you don’t mind-?”

Roksana shook her head and threw a skip into her step to walk ahead of them with Neo, “Not at all, You guys seem tired and i’m not, take a load off, sit on a fallen tree or a rock, take a nap an’ we’ll meet you halfway coming back.”

“What about _‘Finn’?”_ Kiran asked quietly, trying to go unheard by the man.

The two being left behind (accompanied by the already unconscious mergirl, Corrie) glanced back and saw he had no intention to continue without them, and no intention to leave, either, and while it put them a bit on edge, they decided to try and talk to him.

“..So hey um,” Roksana turned to Neo, after walking along for a while at a decent pace, the boys having disappeared from sight, and the daylight spread across the sky like that of late morning, “...Can..I tell you something?”

Neo was quiet at first, observing their surroundings in a stoic, alert manner, and drifting along the path a few steps ahead of the other, but she turned to face the older girl before she spoke again. “Absolutely.”

“I don’t have anywhere else to go than with you all,” she said, wringing her hands again and letting them disappear partially into her long, flowing sleeves. “I..can’t remember a thing from before you woke me up and I’m not sure why.”

Neo looked surprised, which was a first for her, but she turned around again to continue as if nothing was wrong. “We’ll just have to figure out why then.”

“Right, right..”


End file.
